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John Legend, along with others, joins Crowdfunding Campaign to Restore Nina Simone’s childhood home

Back in 2017, we had reported that four artists have come together to buy the childhood home of Nina Simone namely Ellen Gallagher, Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu and Adam Pendleton. They bought the childhood home for a price of $95,000 in a hope to restore and preserve the site. Now, a new crowdfunding campaign has started which is also to restore the childhood home of Nina Simone.

In this latest campaign, there are artists from all across the world and of different kinds joining hands to make this work. Also, there are high-profile supporters who have joined in this campaign as well. These include the likes of John Legend who is famous for his singing as well as Cat Stevens, Issa Rae and Mahersala Ali. This is an Indiegogo campaign and is named as “Restore Nina Simone’s Childhood Home.”

The campaign description reads that the aim is to revitalize this birthplace of soul history which is “Tucked away in Tryon, North Carolina, is the humble home where Nina Simone developed her love for the piano, Despite its history, the home sat vacant until 2017 when four artists purchased it and saved it from demolition. Today, with the artists’ guidance, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is working to create a vibrant future for the site, but we need your help! Join our campaign to ensure that Nina Simone’s childhood home is preserved for future generations.”

Pendleton, who is a conceptual artist and painter, said that he hopes the project to go beyond refurbishing and tells that Simone was born and raised in this 90-year-old house and this is the place where she started loving music and wrote iconic songs.

He added that “When three fellow artists and I purchased Nina Simone’s childhood home in 2017, we did so with the desire that the site be transformed into a piece of living history, This space, so integral to Nina Simone’s music and activism, can serve to carry forward her legacy and inspire future artists and musicians.”